Sample Application: Fabrikam Fine Furniture

Summary:
Microsoft Corporation
March 2006
The Fabrikam Fine Furniture reference application is a feature-rich, fully-functional reference application. The source download includes a Visual Studio .NET solution containing the end-to-end application (coming soon), and you can also download separate components to assist you in building mobile PC and Tablet PC solutions (available now). If your next mobile PC project involves sales force automation, order entry, product design/engineering/customization, pickup/delivery, and other types of in-field collection and use of database records, you can leverage Fabrikam Fine Furniture to your advantage.

Virtual Lab looks at WCF fundamentals

New MSDN Virtual Lab event covers the basics of programming in Windows Communication Foundation (WCF). Included is a PDF document with detailed step-by-step instructions covering the tasks required to complete several scenarios.

/Gill

WebParts: From SharePoint to ASP.NET 2.0

By Dino Esposito
Wintellect's Dino Esposito shows how to build custom Web Parts for SharePoint Portal Server and SharePoint Services using Visual Studio 2003 with the WebPart Templates. He then shows how to build a similar Web Part using the Portal Framework in ASP.NET 2.0 without using SharePoint.

/Gill

What to know your KPIs ?

Here is a full length step by step tutorial with explanation for KPI especially for OLAP Reporting.

Mastering OLAP Reporting: Reporting with Analysis Services KPIs
By William Pearson
http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mssql/article.php/3605826

Want a real-world .Net app to try out various secure development scenarios?

Well there is the Hacme Bank™(Copyright 2004-2006 (c) by McAfee, Inc.http://www.foundstone.com)

It is designed to teach application developers, programmers, architects and security professionals how to create secure software. Hacme Bank simulates a "real-world" web services-enabled online banking application, which was built with a number of known and common vulnerabilities. This allows users to attempt real exploits against a web application and thus learn the specifics of the issue and how best to fix it. The web services exposed by Hacme Bank are used by our other testing applications including Hacme Books and Hacme Travel.

/Gill

Create Reports from Any Data Source Using SQL Server Reporting Services Custom Data Extensions

I used SQL Server Reporting Services 2005 many times in SQL 2005 trainings i conducted and also at presentation at IT events and always loved to tell people how one can reports from any data source. You do not need to store you data source on a Microsoft SQL Server to get reports.

Here is a nice article (not MSDN whitepaper) which shows you just how to take advantage of Reporting Services' unique extensibility model to build reports from ADO.NET datasets.
It is written by by Teo Lachev

SQL 2000 Performance Tuning ? Want a book ?

Read a lot of good reviews for this book. It is written 2004 but very applicable to even SQL 2005.

SQL Server Query Performance Tuning Distilled
Product Details
Paperback: 624 pages
Publisher: Apress; 2 edition (October 11, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN: 1590594215

Five common Web application vulnerabilities

The following Infocus technical article was published on SecurityFocus today:
Five common Web application vulnerabilities By Sumit Siddharth and Pratiksha Doshi Published 2006-04-28

This article looks at five common Web application attacks, primarily for PHP applications, and then presents a short case study of a vulnerable Website that was found using Google and easily exploited. It would be useful too if you were doing any web applications in general.

Microsoft to extend SQL Server Mobile to all versions of Windows

Exec says it's 'naive' to think all data will live in the data center

My blog entry referenced. I feel useful.

I had made an entry into my blog about web part development. Recently someone had reference my web part blog entry in their blog. It is in French.

I would get it translated soon and find out what was written about my blog. I think he was happy to have all that he needs to know about Web Part development, especially the information on Smart Part.

Here is his blog http://blogs.developpeur.org/redo/archive/2005/02/08/4387.aspx (in French)

/Gill

BEA ups ante for SharePoint integration and .NET development

Two new BEA Systems products aim to increase value and ease of use for customers using both Java and .NET platforms; the new releases are a milestone on what BEA calls its "unified portal roadmap," announced last December.

BEA made the announcement at the Gartner Portals, Content & Collaboration Summit in Las Vegas earlier this week, saying the products in their portal portfolio are designed for customers using .NET-based apps and services with investment in Microsoft technologies. The announcement covers both the new AquaLogic Interaction SharePoint Console, designed to support integration and governance of Windows SharePoint services within a BEA portal deployment; and the Portal .NET Application Accelerator, an integrated toolset for ASP .NET developers working with the WSRP standard.

By ADT Staff

How to invoke a BizTalk Orchestration using Office InfoPath 2003

Here is a nice article at CodeProject.com. I work Biztalk and InfoPath quite a lot. Never got to writing a guide and whitepaper but i thought this would be a good read.

It is written by Naveen Karamchetti

Microsoft eyes XAML to wed designers, developers

It sees Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere as a more flexible alternative to Flash.

Read more (at computerworld.com)

The Worst Web Design Techniques Featured on Web Pages That Suck in 2005

Q&A: Microsoft exec details Team Foundation Server launch

Multiple Active Resut Sets (MARS) in SQL

Here is a small FAQ on MARS. It is short but it has got some important details. Read it...

What is BASE64.

If you want to learn more about Base64, there's a pretty good article over at Wikipedia.

Free Encryption By: Michael Coles (from SQLServerCentral.com)

Free SQL Server 2000 Encryption for your data!!! Author Michael Coles has put together a toolkit and some XPs that you can use to encrypt your data with the Blowfish algorithm. It is hard to write good applications that encrpyt data and manage the keys and security. This will give you a great headstart on protecting your data.

How-To-Select an Obfuscation Tool for .NET™

From the How-To-Select™ Guides at http://www.howtoselectguides.com/

Automated Smart Client Deployment and Update - Today and Tomorrow

March 31, 2005 (at http://www.theserverside.net)
Smart client application architecture is gaining ground as a replacement for many intranet and some internet web applications. Smart client architectures have many considerations that you need to take into account to build a well robust, reliable, scalable, performant, and secure app. However, building the application is only part of the battle.

Once you get the smart client application designed and tested along with its supporting middle tier components, you need to deploy the application to client machines and support it with (possibly frequent) updates while it is there.

This article will discuss some of your options, including capabilities that exist today with .NET 1.1 such as Windows Installer, No Touch Deployment, and the Updater Application Block, as well as those that will soon arrive with the release of .NET 2.0, specifically ClickOnce.

A Case Study in Performance Tuning

Columnist : Gordon Pollokoff Posted: 01/24/2005 at sqlservercentral.com

Summary:SQL Server does a wonderful job of tuning itself, selecting the optimum query plans and in general performing very well under a variety of conditions. That does not mean the a good DBA cannot add value by setting up the system and ensuring the optimizer receives the information that it needs. New author Gordon Pollokoff brings us a short case study from a project he as recently involved in where a new application required a bit of tuning.

Microsoft Enterprise Library 2.0 Released

Microsoft Enterprise Library 2.0 Released Microsoft's Patterns & Practices Team has released Enterprise Library 2.0. Enterprise Library is a collection of application blocks including data access, logging, configuration, cryptography, exception handling, caching, and security.

This version has been updated to work with .NET 2.0 and includes some significant changes.

Key Changes from Enterprise Library 1.x

• Configuration now built on System.Configuration
• Configuration Application Block no longer exists
• Easier to use blocks with or without configuration files
• Instrumentation configurable and disabled by default
• Much Improved Logging Application Block
• Flexibility and Performance Improvements
• Simpler and more powerful Data Access Application Block
• Use with OLE-DB, ODBC or any managed provider
• Most of the Security Application Block has been removed
• Deprecated in favor of .NET's Membership and Profile Features

Step-byStep in debugging ASP.Net memory leaks

Tess Ferandez, MVP, posted in the blog about NET Memory Leak Case Study: The Event Handlers That Made The Memory Baloon. Very good read.

Go-Live License for WCF and WF

Windows Communication Foundation and Windows Workflow Foundation are now Go-Live enabled as of Beta 2.

Read more on Go-Live... http://msdn.microsoft.com/winfx/getthebeta/golive/default.aspx

History of BASIC and C Based Languages by Billy Hollis

Billy Hollis takes a rather tongue-in-cheek look at the history of the BASIC and C family of languages in two recent blog posts.

Complex data binding expressions in ASP.NET

Complex Data Binding Expressions in ASP.Net by Fritz Onion

New Patterns & Practices: Upgrading VB6 to VB.NET and VB 2005

TheServerSide.net

Microsoft's Patterns & Practices group has published a new guide in its series of books. The title is "Upgrading Visual Basic 6.0 Applications to Visual Basic .NET and Visual Basic 2005."

This guide is intended for software technical decision makers, solution architects, and software developers who are involved in Visual Basic 6.0 application or component development. It helps individuals understand the issues and risks that go along with upgrading to Visual Basic .NET. It also provides steps for preparing your applications for a successful and cost-effective upgrade. Finally, it gives ideas and pointers about how advance your application after you successfully upgrade it to Visual Basic .NET.

The 700+ page book consists of 21 chapters and is organized into the following four parts:
General Upgrade Practices
Understanding the Upgrade Process
Manual Upgrade Tasks
Beyond the Upgrade

/Gill

patterns and guidance available for securing web services with WSE 3.0 and Indigo.

Web Service Security Guide

Brief Description
Scenarios, Patterns, and Implementation Guidance for Web Services Enhancements 3.0. This guide will help you quickly make the most appropriate security decisions in the context of your Web service's requirements while providing the rationale and education for each option.

Overview
This guide will help you quickly make the most appropriate security decisions in the context of your Web service's requirements while providing the rationale and education for each option. A scenario-driven approach is provided to demonstrate situations where different security patterns are successful. The guide also combines a series of decision matrices to assist you in applying your own criteria to use the Web service security patterns to meet the requirements of your environment.

CorasWorks Free Web Part - WSS Cross-Site Search

Todd from MindSharpBlog has posted on the free webpart for searching across website, which out of the box, WSS does not do.

Here is the download URL but please do the read the

Microsoft Uses Ajax To Web-enable Corporate IM

Microsoft Uses Ajax To Web-enable Corporate IM
http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/180531/207397/3931/0/

Embedding SQL Server Express into Custom Applications

Embedding SQL Server Express into Custom Applications
By: Additional Articles (from MSDN Developer Community)

This white paper discusses how to integrate and deploy Microsoft SQL Server Express-based applications by using configuration files and the ClickOnce deployment technology in Microsoft Visual Studio.

Patterns & Practices: Enterprise Development Reference Architecture

Overview
The Enterprise Development Reference Architecture (EDRA) – previously code named "Shadowfax" – provides architectural guidance that an organization can use to standardize and improve the development of distributed systems.EDRA includes an extensible application framework, four QuickStarts, an application template, and supporting documentation. The Global Bank Reference Implementation (GBRI) is also available, which is a sample application that uses patterns & practices guidance (including EDRA) in an online banking scenario.

Did you know there Hands-On-Labs for EDRA? (from gotdotnet)
EDRA Hands On Labs (08/02/2005 • News) Southworks is pleased to announce the release of its EDRA Workshop material to the community! You can find the documentation in the workspace downloads section.

WinFX's Windows Workflow Foundation explained.

Dave's detailed post on the different types of workflow that WF supports and which to use when. This is good post to get started with WF.

Ten Essential Tools : Visual Studio Add-Ins Every Developer Should Download Now

Read the article from James Avery about Ten Essential Tools for VS 2003 and VS 2005 developers. James wrote a article last year on ".NET Tools: Ten Must-Have Tools Every Developer Should Download Now" but those were stand-alone tools which did not integrate into Visual Studio.

The article this year, he is doing just that: talking about tools which are Visual Studio Add-Ins.

This year's top ten Visual Studio Add-In Tools are:

TestDriven.NET
GhostDoc
Paster
CodeKeep
PInvoke.NET
VSWindowManager PowerToy
WSContractFirst
VSMouseBindings
CopySourceAsHTML
Cache Visualizer

Last years top tool were:
Snippet Compiler
Regulator
CodeSmith
NUnit
FxCop
Lutz Roeder's .NET Reflector
NDoc
NAnt
Switch Tools

Excellent article on team development whose principles

Here an excellent article on team development whose principles have application within the realm of IT management. Read this in the MCPMag.com newsletter.


IMPROVING SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT: Return of the Toolsmith Software developments teams of late are becoming so fractious, toolsmiths are becoming a necessity to help maintain focus and development best practices.
By Mike Gunderloy

Each team will need its own toolsmith, regardless of the excellence and reliability of any centrally provided service, for his job is to see to the tools needed or wanted by his surgeon, without regard to any other team's needs. The tool-builder will often construct specialized utilities, catalogued procedures, macro libraries.
-- Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., "The Mythical Man-Month"
http://tinyurl.com/a9u9b

Brooks was writing before many of my readers began their software development careers (indeed, I suspect before some of my readers were born). Despite that, the point about development teams (the "surgeon" in his example is a metaphor for the lead programmer) needing their own dedicated toolsmith has never seemed more true than it does today -- which just goes to show, I suppose, that things don't really change all that fast in our field.

THE JOY OF CONTINUOUS INTEGRATION
What got me thinking along these lines was some fun I had recently with revising my own working process on a couple of small projects. I decided that it was finally time to get end-to-end continuous integration running here, so I paused writing code long enough to set up a couple of servers (using virtual machines -- fortunately I had a relatively new dual Xeon server that wasn't yet heavily loaded) and started downloading software.

The first order of business was to get a Subversion source code control repository up and running. Then I installed TortoiseSVN http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/ on my development box to give me an easy interface to give me an easy way to move code back and forth between the box and the repository. Next, I set up the other server as a continuous integration box with CruiseControl.NET http://tinyurl.com/3jepz as its backbone.

This server also got all the tools to manage the build: NAnt http://nant.sourceforge.net/ for scripting, NUnit http://www.nunit.org/ for testing, FxCop http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/fxcop/ for compliance checking, NCover http://www.ncover.org/ for code coverage checking, Simian http://www.redhillconsulting.com.au/products/simian/ for duplication checking, and Vil http://www.1bot.com/ for metrics generation.

With all the pieces in place, I was ready to dive into configuration. This mainly meant some time writing NAnt scripts, though there was also time spent figuring out why things that compiled on the dev box didn't compile on the build server ("oh, I forgot to install that library"). Finally, the job was done.

In case you've never used continuous integration, it's really pretty slick. Now, as soon as I check a change into the Subversion server, the CruiseControl.NET server starts beavering away. A few seconds later I get a little notification in the tray of my dev box, and I can go to a Web page on my intranet to see what all the tools have to say about the quality of my code (usually at least one of them has something uncomplimentary to say, but that's another story). It's a wonderful system; With a smoothly-running continuous integration server, you know that at any moment you've got code that's shippable (or you know exactly what's broken). If you're already using source code control, performing unit testing, and writing good specs, I recommend you look into adding continuous integration to your bag of tricks.

KEEPING THE ENGINE RUNNING
But there's a downside to all this plumbing, too. If your development process evolves to the point of depending on a continuous integration server and the software on it, you'd darned well better keep that server running. You'd also better keep the scripts that it depends on checked into your source code control. And don't forget that this stuff is cutting-edge: All the various tools are under active development, so you can expect to have new versions to evaluate and possibly install on a regular basis. I have the luxury that I'm just futzing around. You probably don't.

This is where I see the opening for the modern toolsmith.
Someone has to stay down in the boiler room, shoveling coal into the engines that keep the whole operation running.

Certainly, such positions have already existed in the software world for quite some time. If you go to Microsoft, for example, you'll find plenty of build engineers whose job is to make sure that Windows or Office comes rolling out of source code each and every day. But I think more and more smaller teams are going to realize that this has to be a dedicated position, rather than something that gets done by other developers as an extra job at the end of the day.

IT'S TIME FOR SPECIALIZATION
Let's think about the things that a dedicated toolsmith might do for a team of, say, eight or ten developers:
* Keep the build and source-code control and bug-tracking servers running
* Test new versions of tools the team is already using and install them as needed
* Evaluate new tools and suggest ones that can streamline processes
* Write scripts and tools specifically for the team
* Document processes and be ready to set up the software environment for new hires

I don't know about you, but I sure see a full-time job there.
Now, granted, these jobs already get done on small and medium teams. But how do they get done? In my experience it's by some combination of asking corporate IT to do things (at least, when there is a corporate IT to ask) and hoping they get done, stealing time from other projects, working late, and shoving things under the table to be done later (like that ever happens).
Wouldn't it be better to have one person who lived and breathed tools devoting full-time to making this stuff happen? Wouldn't it be better to have your other devs devoting their time to writing the product's code and not worrying about trying to be experts in NAnt and NCover and all the rest too? I'd bet the average eight-person team could pull one developer to dedicated toolsmith activities and not experience any loss in code productivity at all.

To my mind, this is just one facet of a change that's inevitably coming to software development as our tools and target environments get more complex: specialization. Many of us are generalists now, ready to dive in and learn whatever the project requires, whether that be a new communications subsystem, a build tool, a new UI design language, or whatever. But I think we're hitting the limits of generalists pretty quickly, if indeed we're not already there. Consider the demands that Windows Presentation Foundation will make on user interface designers -- do you really think every developer you know will be able to create an attractive user interface in the new world of Vista? I don't. We'll see user interface specialists commanding high wages from companies who have a clue.
But I digress.

MOVING FORWARD
It was Adam Smith, back in Victorian times, who pointed out the connection between specialization and economic growth. As large jobs are broken down into smaller components and workers become more specialized, they more expert in their jobs. This in turn means that they can do those jobs more efficiently, helping create more wealth. Though this principle hasn't been widely applied to software development yet, I can see no reason why it shouldn't be. Perhaps the toolsmiths of tomorrow will be the ones who lead us into a new era of creating richer software in a more efficient fashion.

More VB.Net samples then C#

Tom Archer has a post on how there are more VB.NET based code samples in MSDN now compared to C#.
I have a feeling of Deja vu.
When .NET was first released, almost all code samples that led to a great amount of misinformation being spread that C# was the language of .NET and that VB.NET would be dead in a few years time. There was also a lot of debate on how all VB developers should move to C# as they had no future.
Now when .NET goes into version 2.0, the adoption of VB.NET remains very strong, both in the corporate world as well as among hobbists. And atlast Microsoft seems to have realised that it may have been sending a worng signal, one it did not intend to.
Though I dont buy the explanation Archer gives, I still think it is good move to atleast debunk the VB is dead bogey.

Source: .net India

New .NET 2.0 Benchmarks

The results show that the .NET 2.0/Windows Server 2003 implementation of the benchmark application running against SQL Server 2005 outperforms the Java EJB-based WebSphere 6.0.2.3/RedHat Linux implementation by up to 183%. The results also show that .NET achieves significantly better price/performance ratios than WebSphere 6 on all implementations tested. This paper will also show that Java applications can get good performance when connecting to SQL Server 2005: the performance of the PlantsByWebSphere JDBC-based application that uses the soon-to-be-released Microsoft SQL Server 2005 JDBC driver is approximately equivalent to the performance of the equivalent application that connects to Oracle 10G.

Source:.net India and TheServerSide

The LINQ Project

The LINQ Project is a codename for a set of extensions to the .NET Framework that encompass language-integrated query, set, and transform operations. It extends C# and Visual Basic with native language syntax for queries and provides class libraries to take advantage of these capabilities.

Below are resources that you would like to use to jump into LINQ.

---

Featured Information
LINQ on Channel9Watch this Channel9 video with Anders Hejlsberg and Luca Bolognese as they explain what The LINQ Project is, and how it will help you create XML and data-driven applications.

LINQ Project Overview documentRead about the goals of, and the features proposed for The LINQ Project.

101 Samples using LINQSee The LINQ Project in action in these code samples. (Note: these samples are in C# only for now)

---

Information
Standard Query Operators
Standard Query Operators is an API that enables querying of any .NET array or collection.
DLinq Overview
Read about the features of LINQ as they apply to querying relational data.
XLinq Overview
Read about the features of LINQ as they apply to querying XML.

---

Downloads
C# LINQ Tech Preview Update for Visual Studio 2005 RTM Release
This is an updated version of the LINQ Technical Preview unveiled at PDC 2005. It includes samples, whitepapers, hands-on labs and compiler support to create LINQ-enabled applications using the RTM release of Visual Studio 2005 or Visual C# 2005 Express Edition.
Visual Basic LINQ Tech Preview
The LINQ Technical Preview includes samples, whitepapers, hands-on labs and compiler support to create LINQ-enabled applications using release candidate versions of Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition. Note: this preview works only with the Visual Studio 2005 Release Candidate.
XLinq Hands-on Lab Exercises
Experiment with the proposed features of XLinq for querying XML files.

Videos
Future Directions for Data Programming in Visual Basic
Join Paul Vick and Amanda Silver as they discuss some of the features coming in Visual Basic 9.0.
Using Visual Basic as a Dynamic Programming Language
Paul Vick and Erik Meijer talk about the dynamic aspects of programming in Visual Basic, both in Visual Basic 2005 and Visual Basic 9.0.
C# 3.0 Language Enhancements in action
See the changes proposed to C# 3.0 in action. This video showcases implicit variable declaration, extension methods and lambda expressions. If you would like to follow along, you should install the LINQ Technology Preview first.
C# 3.0 LINQ in action
This video showcases the use of The LINQ Project with C# 3.0. In this video, LINQ is used to query in-memory data stores. If you would like to follow along, you should install the LINQ Technology Preview first.
C# 3.0 XLinq in action
This video showcases the use of The LINQ Project with C# 3.0. In this video, LINQ is used to query XML files. If you would like to follow along, you should install the LINQ Technology Preview first.
C# 3.0 DLinq in action
This video showcases the use of The LINQ Project with C# 3.0. In this video, LINQ is used to query relational databases. If you would like to follow along, you should install the LINQ Technology Preview first.

Hands-on Labs
LINQ Hands-on Labs
Use LINQ with in-memory collections, relational data and XML documents, and explore the query operators available in LINQ in these four hands-on labs.
DLinq Hands-on Labs
Create DLinq object models, use DLinq to modify data in relational databases, and explore the advanced features in DLinq in these hands-on labs.
XLinq Hands-on Labs
Query and manipulate XML files using XLinq in these hands-on labs.

/Gill
Resource: http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/future/linq/

Controlling Transactions and Locks in SQL 2000 and 2005

Here are some very good reads on locks and transaction in both SQL 2000 and SQL 2005(Yukon). Locks and transactions are very important to understand for developers, especially on the SQL Server side.
Controlling Transactions and Locks in SQL 2000 and 2005 - Part 1
Controlling Transactions and Locks in SQL 2000 and 2005 - Part 2
Controlling Transactions and Locks in SQL 2000 and 2005 - Part 3

/Gill

Composite UI Application Block

Are you considering a Smart Client approach to address the challenges of building Line of Business solutions that interact with many backend systems? Ever wondered what would the architecture and design of a complex UI would look like? Do you need to abstract the "plumbing" of such client applications so your business developers can focus their attention on building the business specific components rather than dealing with complex issues like threading, asynchronous requests, etc.? The Composite UI Application Block (CAB) could be a good candidate.

CAB is a guidance asset (an application block) based on .NET 2.0. At this stage CAB is the only Application Block available for Framework 2.0.

It’s intended to provide proven practices to build complex UIs based on simpler “parts” (SmartParts as we call them, “WinParts” in other architectures). This is a recurrent pattern implemented in many well known examples.

/Gill

Beta of “p&p Community” Launched!

Beta of “p&p Community” Launched! (06/21/2005 • More details) p&p Community is a new section on GotDotNet designed specifically to support patterns & practices community activities. The site features several usability improvements over the original workspaces, including multiple message boards, a search feature, and new links in the left navigation menu.

/Gill

For Developers, Microsoft Has More in Store than Ever Before, Part 2

By Patrick Gallucci

As a follow-up to my previous article on the PDC this year, I present a few more technologies that you are sure to hear about.

LinQ: A Sneak Peek at C# 3.0
The .NET Language Integrated Query (LinQ) is by far the most compelling technology to be added to C# in my opinion. Without going into a lot of detail, I will explain what it is and how and when it will be implemented. I look at LinQ and its relationship to objects as what WMI is to events. It is a query language that allows you to search your objects and their attributes and methods in a standard declarative manner.

(goto http://www.developer.com/net/net/article.php/3554921 to code sample.)

For a meta-data guy like me, this has great potential to allow dynamic application creation and execution.

Now if you join this data to a relational database and WMI or event data, you can start to see the potential. Don Box and Anders Hejlsberg wrote a MSDN article that explains the details of LinQ. Read it, learn it, live it. Keep in mind that LinQ is part of C# 3.0 and is not supported at this point. (I will write a very detailed article on LinQ for Developer.com at a later date.)


To be clear, LinQ is indeed C# but also so much more. As Microsoft Group Manager Alan Griver pointed out to me, it is a cross-team effort between the C#, VB, and SQL teams. "This is a platform technology, not tied to any given language," says Alan, which completely makes sense. Why should us C# guys have all the goodies? I think that makes this an even more compelling technology for everyone to learn.

Office 12: New UI and Tighter IntegrationI have to admit that I am one of the individuals who take Office for granted. I have been using it for so long that I don’t think too much about it. I would not consider myself a power-user from an end-user perspective, but I do extend it with macros and write programs for it using the Visual Studio tools for Office (VSTO). So the new UI for Office 12 was a bit of a surprise to me. I always find myself adjusting toolbars and trying to get my environment set up correctly, but from the looks of it, things should be more intuitive and easier to use in Office 12. From a development standpoint, with the introduction of the CLR with SQL Server 2005, Office development should be substantially easier and more efficient.


Expression: New UI Presentation Tools for Graphics and Web Designers
As a Flash designer/developer wannabe, I am very much looking forward to Expression, a suite of three tools all targeted at the UI or presentation designer:

Acrylic Graphic designer incorporates vector and image editing as well as dynamic special effects and workflow in a single environment.
The Sparkle Interactive Designer allows you to create audio, video, and static designs into a single user experience, such as a movie or 3D interactive animation.
The Quartz Web Designer allows you to take the output from the other tools and create a Web design that is controlled by CSS and XML.

A beta of this tool is available on MSDN. I am interested to see the integration that this toolset has with Visual Studio.

So Many Tools...
Well, those were my highlights of the PDC 2005 this year. If you were not able to make it to the event, you can still see most of the content online at the PDC Web site on MSDN.

Microsoft and other software companies are delivering so many new tools and technologies these days that it is a challenge to keep track of all the products. The PDC and other conferences are a great way to stay in the loop and get a first-hand look at these products before they hit the shelves.

SQL SERVER 2005 SECURES YOUR DATA LIKE NEVER BEFORE

SQL SERVER 2005 SECURES YOUR DATA LIKE NEVER BEFORE by Don Kiely

Right out of the box, SQL Server 2005 does not install many of its services (such as SQL Server Reporting Services) or does not have features turned on by default (.NET integration), thereby reducing the attack vectors that hackers could use to compromise your data security.

http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,1y6z,1,3,hgug,7ba3,cd9n

Everyone is talking about it...A SharePoint Recycle Bin

The Microsoft Internet IT group has released a SharePoint Recycle Bin implemented via an ISAPI filter. This is really the only “bullet proof” approach to the problem with the current version of SharePoint.

Read about it here from Chris: http://blogs.msdn.com/cjohnson/archive/2005/10/06/477544.aspx

And here from Joel: http://spaces.msn.com/members/joeloleson/Blog/cns!1pw3EWFLZcwvLlkcI8XdgIjw!148.entry

/Gill

Managed Bluetooth library

Bluetooth
Anil Dhawan has written a managed Bluetooth library for Windows Mobile that makes it painfully easy to write Bluetooth apps. Even better, the source code is available under a shared source license. It was used as the basis for a two-player Spacewar game for WM5.0 that runs over Bluetooth.

/Gill

Asynchronous client script callbacks (AJAX)

Call them what you will, there’s valuein asynchronous client script callbacks.
by Paul Glavich

Full article is here

DPack

“DPack is a FREE collection of Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 and 2005 tools. DPack is designed to greatly increase developer's productivity, automate repetitive processes and expand upon some of the Microsoft Visual Studio features. ”

New DPack available From the site:

662Kb, DPack v2.2.0 for Visual Studio .NET 2003
545Kb, DPack v2.2.0 for Visual Studio 2005 (Beta 2, June and July CTP only)

/Gill

For Developers, Microsoft Has More in Store than Ever Before

For Developers, Microsoft Has More in Store than Ever Before
By Patrick Gallucci (from developer.com)

So the grand Microsoft spectacle known as the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2005 has now come and gone. Except for the hype surrounding the launch of the original .NET Framework, I cannot remember a technical conference garnering so much anticipation. This might have seemed like the Super Bowl for techno geeks in the US and around the world, but it may have been only the warm-up act. The November launch of Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005, and BizTalk Server 2006 will be the largest such event in Microsoft History.

To get a sense of how big, here are some of the projections:

• Microsoft expects approximately 2,500 attendees at the San Francisco, Calif. event aptly named “Launch 2005”, where Steve Ballmer will be the keynote speaker.
• Redmond has scheduled an additional 293 launch events in 241 cities worldwide, covering 91 countries, with an estimated attendance of 200,000.
• Additionally, over 1,800 launch events will be hosted by the user group, learning channel, and academic communities.
• Sixty partners—a record number for any Microsoft server and tools launch—are sponsoring “Launch 2005”, including Accenture/Avanade, AMD, CapGemini/Sogeti, Computer Associates, Dell, EDS, EMC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Intel, NEC, SAP, Siebel and Unisys.
  

But enough propaganda. This article is my take on the key announcements and other take-aways from the PDC 2005 this past month. The announcements broadly covered different technology releases; there was a little bit for everyone. So if you’ve been wondering if technology in general is in a slump since the Internet bubble popped, I can assure you that it is not. Just ask anyone who was at the sold out event. Sold out? I thought that was for concerts and plane flights? How on earth can a technical conference for geeks sell out? Hmm, ponder that question as we go over some of the highlights.

Mr. Gates Is in the BuildingBill

Gates Keynote. Enough said. When Bill is in attendance—you know it’s big. You have to wonder how Gates stays interested in technology. The same way I do, I guess: he likes what he does. It’s not work if you enjoy what you are doing. I stumbled into the IT world by accident and thought I was playing. I never imagined I could actually make a living doing it. So anytime I see Gates speak, I see that drive in him that I think embodies a lot of us in this field.
Gates spoke of all the soon-to-be-released technologies and the impact that they will have on future software releases. If you did not make the PDC this year, you can still see the keynotes from Gates and Co-President Jim Allchin.

Windows Vista, WinFS

Windows Vista, formerly known as Longhorn, will be Microsoft’s next operating system release for the desktop and server. For the developer, WinFX is the new programming model that sits on top of and also extends the .NET Framework.

The Indigo API now becomes the Windows Communication Foundation Framework, with extensible SOA and SOD (service on demand) features and capabilities built directly into the API. These will all support industry standards such as the WS*- specifications. This is a key component to the connected services paradigm that the IT world is heading towards.

This announcement means it’s going to be easier to develop on open standards that are deployed as part of the API, rather than as an add-on SDK. The security and reliability will be built into the OS.

Then there is the Windows Presentation Foundation, built on XAML. This to me has been the most exciting thing I have seen yet for one simple reason: I am a meta-data guy, and this solves a lot of the coding issues I had with Windows, Web pages, or anything graphical. The separation of UI design from the code and the data that is driven from the code enables me to store my attributes about a 'widget' in WinFS and render it using the WinFx API. This should be released in 2006 for XP.

Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005, and BizTalk 2006

Visual Studio 2005 (Whidbey) has become my new favorite development tool. Okay, so it just replaced Visual Studio 2003, but I must say that the VS team is doing a great job with this new IDE. Although I have been using it for close to 18 months now, I am just now starting to learn some of the new features.

By far my favorite new feature is IntelliSense Code Snippets (ICS). I used to write macros for what I now can do with ICS. I still write macros, but not as many. I wont go into too many details (as I have a forthcoming Developer.com article on the topic) other than to say, learn it, live it, be the snippet!

The Visual Studio Team Foundation will be the new working model for development projects. It is the flagship environment for medium-sized to large project teams. It is built around industry standards such as Agile software development and Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF). In some cases, you might hear it as the replacement to SourceSafe, and to some extent that is true. But it does so much more for the entire product lifecycle, such as project management, process workflow, and defect tracking to mention just a few.

SQL Server 2005 (Yukon)—where to begin? Let’s start with Integration Services. If you currently work with SQL Server 2000 Data Transformation Services (DTS) and have not taken a peek at Integration Services, stop whatever you are doing and try it. It is not an evolution but a revolution! First and foremost, it is part of SQL Server 2005—period. I have been a long-time user of DTS 7 and 2000 and grew very found of its capabilities. But as I matured with the tool and my customers matured with it and other Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) tools, I found myself extending quite a bit in some ways that I think were not intended. I sometimes found myself asking what if; I now just say wow!

The Business Intelligence (BI) and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) team delivered a product that I believe over time will have the biggest impact of all the tools that ship with SQL Server 2005. Starting with optimizing the data flow so that the performance is optimal, and then adding most every imaginable task and component, they have all but eliminated the need for extensibility.

But wait, you say you need to extend widget X? No problem, since it’s built on top of .NET 2.0 and part of Visual Studio, you can extend existing objects and components or just write your own in your language of choice.

This naturally leads me to CLR integration. Delivering this feature to say the least was not a trivial process. Early Yukon-CLR integrations were actually hosted by IIS. The 2.0 implementation changed this for stability and integration ease. What you get is a very stable DBMS that allows you to write managed code for stored procedures, triggers, and functions.

More to Come

I hope this has been enough to get you excited about some of the new technologies that are coming. I will follow up this article with a series of articles on some of the specific technologies that were introduced at the PDC.

About the Author
Patrick Gallucci is a Sr. Consultant in the Communications Sector at Microsoft. He has more than thirteen years experience in information technology. Patrick’s area of focus is developing operational efficiencies using development tools and technologies such as .NET, SQL Server, BizTalk Server, Content Management Server, and Commerce Server. His certifications include MCSE, MCDBA and MCT. Patrick is a recent instructor of MSF Design, Microsoft C#, ASP.NET, and other .NET classes. You can contact Patrick at patrick.gallucci@microsoft.com.

WinFX Windows Workflow Foundation!

One of the best things to come from WinFX is the Windows Workflow Foundation. Here is the official website for WF (short for Windows Workflow Foundation). It is there in Beta 1 of WinFx.

I will post more on WF as this is my field of interest since i work a lot with Biztalk and Sharepoint and the occasional MCMS.

Here Mark Schmidt creates a WF XAMLPad. http://blogs.msdn.com/markhsch/archive/2005/10/06/478042.aspx

/Gill

SQL 2005 Webcasts for Oct 2005-Developer and ITPro

Twenty-four new webcasts are scheduled for October, covering such topics as SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services, SQL Server 2005: Facts and Features, A Primer to Proper SQL Server Development and more.


MSDN Webcast: Introduction to SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services (Part 1 of 6) (Level 200) Monday, October 03, 20059:00 AM Pacific TimeThis six-part series presents a comprehensive introduction to Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services for developers. In the first webcast, we provide an overview of Reporting Services.

MSDN Webcast: Introduction to SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services (Part 2 of 6) (Level 200) Wednesday, October 05, 20059:00 AM Pacific Time This second webcast looks in depth at techniques for delivering canned reports to end users, including URL access, subscriptions, and the Web service.

MSDN Webcast: Introduction to SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services (Part 3 of 6) (Level 200) Friday, October 07, 20059:00 AM Pacific Time This third webcast focuses on the Report Builder, a tool for ad hoc reporting.

MSDN Webcast: A Primer to Proper SQL Server Development (Part 8 of 10): Data Loading and Aging Strategies (Level 200) Friday, October 07, 200510:00 AM Pacific TimePart eight in our series on Microsoft SQL Server 2005 development shows you how to use batch strategies to make data loading and aging more efficient.

MSDN Webcast: Introduction to SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services (Part 4 of 6) (Level 200) Monday, October 10, 20059:00 AM Pacific Time In this fourth webcast, we examine some more advanced ideas surrounding report design. Learn how to create tabular reports, matrix reports, linked reports, charts, and sub-reports.

TechNet Webcast: Minimize Blocking with New Snapshot-Based Isolation Levels in SQL Server 2005 (Level 200) Monday, October 10, 20051:00 PM Pacific TimeAre deadlocks giving you grief? Tune into this webcast and learn how you can increase the availability of your applications to your end users.

MSDN Webcast: Introduction to SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services (Part 5 of 6) (Level 200) Wednesday, October 12, 20059:00 AM Pacific Time This fifth webcast focuses on SQL Server Reporting Services extensibility. We demonstrate a custom data source for SQL Server Reporting Services that reads data that is not accessible through SQL queries.

SQL Server 2005: Facts and Features (200-300) Wednesday, October 12, 200510:30 AM Central TimeLearn about the three fundamental advancements SQL Server 2005 brings to the Market: Enterprise Data Management, Developer Productivity, and Business Intelligence.

SQL Server 2005: Facts and Features Wednesday, October 12, 200512:00 PM Eastern Time Learn about the three fundamental advancements SQL Server 2005 brings to the Market: Enterprise Data Management, Developer Productivity, and Business Intelligence.

TechNet Webcast: An Introduction to How SQL Server 2005 Can Help You Deliver Highly Available Database Systems (Level 200) Wednesday, October 12, 20051:00 PM Pacific TimeThis webcast discusses the various features in SQL Server 2005 that can help you deliver high availability: Failover Clustering, Database Mirroring, Peer-to-Peer Replication, Database Snapshots, Snapshot Isolation, and Online Index Operations.

TechNet Webcast: Level Database Mirroring: Why, When and How? (Level 300) Thursday, October 13, 20058:00 AM Pacific TimeIn this webcast, you will learn how to use Database Mirroring as a solution within the broader range of SQL Server 2005 high availability options such as Log Shipping, Clustering, and Replication. You will examine various deployment scenarios, and the considerations and best practices associated with each. Finally, you will learn about the best practices that are based on the experiences gained by internal testing.

MSDN Webcast: Introduction to SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services (Part 6 of 6) (Level 200) Friday, October 14, 20059:00 AM Pacific TimeIn this sixth and final webcast, we concentrate on security and manageability, beginning with a look at the Reporting Services security model, the sources of security information, and the security roles associated with reports and servers.

MSDN Webcast: A Primer to Proper SQL Server Development (Part 9 of 10): Profiling for Better Performance (Level 200) Friday, October 14, 200510:00 AM Pacific Time This webcast, part nine in our series on proper Microsoft SQL Server 2005 development, focuses on the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Profiler and its capabilities.

TechNet Webcast: Optimize Your SQL Server Environment for Availability with Storage Foundation for Windows (Level 200) Wednesday, October 19, 20059:00 AM Pacific Time Join this webcast to learn how to use VERITAS Storage Foundation High Availability for Windows to optimize your SQL Server environment.

TechNet Webcast: How You Can Achieve Greater Availability with Failover Clustering Across Multiple Sites (Level 300) Wednesday, October 19, 200511:30 AM Pacific Time In this webcast, learn how to turn a server cluster into a geographically-dispersed cluster whose nodes reside in different physical sites.

An Overview of SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services and Analysis Services Wednesday, October 19, 200512:00 PM Eastern TimeDiscover how you can finally offer a unified and integrated view of all your business data in your enterprise reporting environment. See some of the best reasons to get excited about SQL Server 2005.

TechNet Webcast: Disaster Recovery Best Practices for SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005 (Level 200) Thursday, October 20, 20059:30 AM Pacific Time This webcast presents a variety of best practices around maximizing SQL Server uptime and availability, while minimizing service disruption to your customers, using Quest's SQL LiteSpeed.

TechNet Webcast: Minimize Blocking Through Snapshot-based Isolation Levels (Level 200) Friday, October 21, 20058:00 AM Pacific TimeJoin this webcast to learn how these new isolations eliminate blocking, including deadlocks between readers/writers. You will also learn how isolations provide a transactional consistent snapshot of a database at transactional and statement levels. This webcast will focus on basic concepts, managing row versions, and troubleshooting.

TechNet Webcast: Building Highly Available Database Systems that Scale with Peer-to-Peer Replication (Level 200) Tuesday, October 25, 200511:30 AM Pacific TimeThis webcast provides an overview for how you can use Peer-to-Peer Replication in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 to create geographically dispersed redundant copies of a database to improve both scalability and availability for database applications.

SQL Server 2005: Facts and Features Wednesday, October 26, 200512:00 PM Eastern Time Learn about the three fundamental advancements SQL Server 2005 brings to the Market: Enterprise Data Management, Developer Productivity, and Business Intelligence.

MSDN Webcast: A Primer to Proper SQL Server Development (Part 10 of 10): Most Common Roadblocks to Scalability and Reliability (Level 200) Friday, October 28, 200510:00 AM Pacific TimeThis is the final webcast in our ten-part series on proper Microsoft SQL Server 2005 development techniques.

TechNet Webcast: A Technical Overview of SQL 2005 High Availability Features (Level 200) Monday, October 31, 20058:00 AM Pacific Time This webcast examines some of the features of Microsoft SQL Server 2005-the next release of the SQL Server product-that can help you overcome some of these barriers. This webcast reviews several specific areas: database server failure or disaster, user or application error, data access concurrency limitations, and database mirroring and clustering.

TechNet Webcast: Optimize Performance with Maximum Uptime by Creating and Maintaining Indexes Online with SQL Server 2005 (Level 200) Monday, October 31, 20059:30 AM Pacific TimeSee how in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 you can create indexes online using data definition language operations such as CREATE/ALTER/DROP index which can be executed concurrently with Data Manipulation Language operations.

TechNet Webcast: How to Increase Availability Using Database Mirroring in SQL Server 2005 (Level 200) Monday, October 31, 20051:00 PM Pacific Time This webcast provides guidance and offers considerations for operational deployments of database mirroring in Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

Microsoft Celebrates 30th Year as Developer's Company

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1866704,00.asp

Sharepoint WebControl Part II : Creating Custom OWS Control for Webpart

Introduction
The first part of this series discuss how to reuse OWS controls from Sharepoint.WebControls. Strictly speaking, there are few steps to employ them in webpart; first, create OWSForm as field containers; second, add OWS * Field controls to the form; next submit the form either using OWSSubmit control or your own control and finally collect the value from POST value collections.

In fact, that Sharepoint.WebControls only define 2 ows field; dateField and numberField – which is far from our expectation. However if you keen to browse OWS.JS (the default javascript’s include in Sharepoint), then you’ll find that there are many other OWS inputs around such as URLField, BooleanField, NoteField, RichTextField, TextField etc. (Figure-1). Obviously, those input are just common input type found in HtmlControls of ASPNET or HTML basic tag. The OWS provides uniform appearance and finer user interface – such as the one we found in date picking tools of DateField or formatting tab of RichTextField etc. So our discussion here is to create the first custom OWS control, using available objects in OWS.JS scripts. For sake of simplicity and cleared purpose, I will take a simple example the TextField – giving you the methodology to create your own OWS*Field control and leaving the other field for you to implement.


/Gill

Sharepoint WebControl Part I :Reusing OWS Controls in Custom Webpart

Introduction
I am very sure that most of us have been familiar with NewForm.aspx from Sharepoint. That kind of submission form by Sharepoint is a template, which is then populated - based on columns definition of that list. So we can have date field, number field etc., depends on columns definition. Surprisingly, that kind of form is made by some JavaScript object. (Figure-1).Typically creating text field is not a problem but not with date field. Usually we need to allocate special effort for date field – either by creating new custom control or create some JavaScript for the date chooser. However if we could re-use date field object from Sharepoint – then the job can be done faster. So let’s start to figure out how!

PDC Vidoes from Channel 9

Here are a whole bunch of technical videos made at the PDC, some of these are very interesting.

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=14&TagID=12

Paper from Microsoft on Connected Systems

Microsoft has a new paper on building connected systems that details the Microsoft Enterprise Application Development Platform products and technologies from the server OS to the .NET Framework. This guide is a high level overview of how the individual tools work together in the creation of connected systems.

Connected systems are applications that leverage the network to link the actors and systems that drive business processes. Connected systems pull together a constellation of services and devices, to more effectively meet modern day business challenges. Building connected systems requires a comprehensive enterprise software platform, but also a new service-oriented architectural approach to address the integration imperative. An enterprise software application platform suitable for building connected systems is much more than a traditional application server, and includes such elements as:

• Client and server operating systems.
• Application services such as transactions, messaging, web application support, and security infrastructure.
• A development technology and application runtime.
• Development tools.
• Business process orchestration.
• Pluggable backend servers providing packaged functionality such as database and portal services.
• An applications management environment.
• Enterprise design patterns and practices.

To read the entire paper, click here.

Source: TheServerSide.net / microsoft.com

The Web services empire strikes back

These are series of articles written by Christian Weyer for TheServerSide.Net website. This is how he introduced them

"In a series of weblog postings I will try to introduce some of the most interesting new features of ASMXv2. There actually already have been some very good articles about what ASMXv2 offers. I just want to drill down a bit. And there is still hope to see all this (and more, with sample code and screenshots) in an MSDN article quite soon :)
"

Here is the full list
Part 1: The Web services empire strikes back - Introductory thoughts
Part 2: The Web services empire strikes back - Inner Workings
Part 3: The Web services empire strikes back - Web Services in Visual Studio 2005
Part 4: The Web services empire strikes back - WS-I BP Conformance
Part 5: The Web services empire strikes back - Custom XML Serialization
Part 6: The Web services empire strikes back - Proxy Type Sharing
Part 7: The Web services empire strikes back - Contract-first with .NET 'IDL'
Part 8: The Web services empire strikes back - Schema Importer Extensions
Part 9: The Web services empire strikes back - Making asynchronous Web service calls easier
Part 10: The Web services empire strikes back - Support for Nullable and SqlTypes

Here is the 11th....The Web services empire strikes back - Support for Generics

Cheers and Thanks for Christian Weyer for this articles and TheServerSide.net to publishing them in their newsletters.

/Gill

SQL Server 2005 XQuery and XML-DML - Part 1, 2 and 3

XML is a big deal in SQL 2005. Hence we need to understand XML, the hierarchical data structures, XML data types, manipulation of stored XML data using XMLQuery. All the while as a DBA, you were dealing with relational data structures and T-SQL way of manipulating this stored data.

I found this good article to get your started, with XML, XQuery, SQL 2005 XML data type, and of course schemas.

http://www.15seconds.com/issue/050803.htm.

Remember to get the sample codes from http://www.daveandal.net/articles/sql2005-xquery/., the authors website.

/Gill

SmartClient Development with VS2005 Series

From: Microsoft WebCasts

Smart Clients that are developed with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 offer both a robust user experience, developer productivity, and the responsiveness of rich clients, along with the small footprint, ease of deployment, and ease of change management offered by Web applications.

Register for this series and learn how to transcend the problems of rich client and Web applications. You will discover how to leave behind the complications that plague large-footprint, tough to deploy, and DLL-laden rich clients, as well as how to avoid the burdens of network dependency, poor user experience, and difficult to develop traditional Web applications.

http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/msdnsmartclient.mspx

/Gill

STL.NET: Combining Generics and Templates

STL.NET provides a bridge between the worlds of traditional C++ templates and .NET generics. By allowing C++ developers to leverage their STL skills without precluding interaction with developers using other .NET languages, STL.NET promises the best of both worlds.
http://www.developer.com/net/cplus/article.php/3524096

/Gill

Avalon and Indigo Get Official Names with Windows Vista Beta Release

With the announcement of the release today of beta 1 for Windows Vista (formally codenamed "Longhorn"), Microsoft also announced the official names for Avalon and Indigo.
Avalon was the code name for what is now officially called Windows Presentation Foundation. WPF is often referred to as the graphical subsystem of Windows Vista. More correctly stated, it is the way in which Windows Vista will create, display, and manipulate documents, media, and user interfaces. This system is expected to use vector graphics, allow for better transparency, and more.

Indigo was the code name for what is now officially called Windows Communication Foundation. WCF is the communications portion of Windows Vista that is built around Web services. This communications technology focuses on providing spanning transports, security, messaging patterns, encoding, networking and hosting, and more. Ultimately, this WCF will deliver a consistent experience — bringing together technologies ranging from Web Services to .NET Remoting to Windows Services — for building connected systems.

It is worth noting that Microsoft had originally announced the beta for August 3rd. This release of the Windows Vista beta a week early should be a welcome surprise to many of the developers and technical IT Pros. This beta is considered a technical beta aimed at developers and techies, primarily those in the MSDN and TechNet programs.

The Windows Vista beta is built on WinFX. The WinFX managed programming model builds on the .NET Framework by adding APIs that target eight core areas. The focus of these APIs is relatively obvious: security, reliability, connectivity, search, data, mobility, user experience, and deployment.

For more on Windows Vista, you can go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/.

Ten Things To Think About When Developing Secure Code

Fail Safe - Your application must always fail safe. That is to say if it encounters a situation and it can no longer proceed, it must deny access to the resource. For example, if a firewall can not validate the action that is being requested by the requester, it should reject the operation; this is known as fail close or fail safe.

Secure the Weakest Link – The security of an application is that of its weakest link thus, it is important that all components in the application are secured and not just the operating system or database server. This also means that as a developer you must protect any resources your code owns or is responsible for.

Security Through Obscurity Does Not Work – Obscurity should not be used as the only or primary security mechanism.

Simplicity - Complexity increases the potential risk of problems. Application architecture and implementations should be as simple as is practical. This also makes it easy to do the right thing.
End to End security – Where data requires protection during transportation, it should be enforced from the sender to the recipient (end to end).

Compartmentalize - Applications should compartmentalize user access. Compartmentalization provides user access to data and functions that they require and restricts them from accessing data or functions they do not need.

Defense in Depth - Applications should use multiple layers of security. This ensures that if one security mechanism is vulnerable to an attack, an additional layer will still enforce an adequate security policy. Password files for example, should be restricted by access control lists and encryption. Similarly even if data is validated, the use of stored procedures or prepared SQL statements is strongly recommended since it adds an additional layer of defense.

Least Privilege – Applications should run with the minimum amount of system privileges that they need to function. Where elevated privileges are required they should be granted for the minimum period of time they are required. A similar principle is the “need to know” principle. Ensure that only the minimum number of people have administrative level access to production web, database and application servers.

Trust but Verify – Applications need to trust other applications or objects on the same host or on the network, however, they must always verify the source they are trusting. The same also applies to users and their actions. For instance, before performing any administrative action, it is important to check that the requesting user is indeed an administrator authorized to request such an action.

Think Strategically – There are no security silver bullets. Security requires constant monitoring and improvement and is not somebody else’s responsibility. Pay special attention to architecting the right solution so that it maybe reused frequently. The use of software design patterns like Model-View-Controller (MVC) and frameworks like JAVA Struts are therefore strongly encouraged.


Attribution
This content was provided by Foundstone and prepared by Nick Murison.

SQL Server 2005 Hands-On Labs

Greetings,

Don't have a machine to spare for Beta testing. Don't want to go thru the messy install-test-wipe-install-test cycle? Try out the SQL Server 2005 hands-on labs.

SQL Server 2005 hands-on labs give you the opportunity to try out the new and improved features and technologies that the new version will make available to database developers.

/Gill

SQL Server is now at TechCenter

The SQL Server has it's own TechCenter at TechNet.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/default.mspx.

/Gill

VSTO (Visual Studio Tool for Office) revisited

Previously i posted some information on VSTO (Visual Studio Tool for Office). In recent days during TechEd 2005 USA, it was announced that the VSTO would also now include Ooutlook support.

So here are tons of resources for working with OUTLOOK using VSTO :)

Download the Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office – Outlook (Beta)
With the new managed Outlook add-in support, developers have a framework and tools to debug, secure, and deploy the Outlook add-ins they create using Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office.

Introducing Outlook Add-in Support in Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office
Outlook add-in support simplifies interaction with the host application and provides a cleaner event framework for creating add-ins along with streamlined security.

Architecture of the Outlook Add-in Support in Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office
Developers now have a robust, supported way to build managed add-ins for Office that use AppDomain isolation, a type-safe code model, and a strict code access security model.

Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office - Developer Portal
Check here for the latest articles, code samples, snippets, trainings, and more for Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office. New content published often!


Also

Don't Miss...

Outlook Add-in Hands-on Labs (Beta)Six new labs designed to help you create and work with Outlook 2003 add-in projects.

Outlook Add-in Samples (Beta)Five sample projects illustrating features and scenarios for developing Outlook 2003 add-in projects.

Outlook Add-in Snippets (Beta)Microsoft IntelliSense code snippets designed to assist developers with frequently occurring Outlook development tasks.

Get Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2Get the new Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 release, which includes the latest tools for building Windows, Web, and mobile applications.

Resources:
Office Developer Center (http://msdn.microsoft.com/office)
TechEd 2005 USA
John R. Durant's WebLog (http://weblogs.asp.net/johnrdurant/rss.aspx)

Reading and Writing XML in .NET Version 2.0 - Part I

Read this article about XML and .Net 2.0. If you have never used the XML handling classes in 1.x, now is the best time. The XML classes has never been easier to use and there so much less code to write. The article makes it so easy to understand this XML classes. Read on...

Cheers
Sarbjit Gill

Technical Articles for BizTalk 2004

Greetings,

The following are some technical articles for BizTalk 2004. Some are relatively new and some updates. For example if you thinking on how to prioritize messages going into processing by an orchestration, then you should look at the BizTalk Server 2004 Convoy Deep Dive.

Anyway, here are the articles and the links

BizTalk Accelerator for HL7 Management Pack Guide. This document describes how to deploy and configure the sample HL7 Management Pack (MOM Pack). It also describes the integration of Microsoft BizTalk Accelerator for HL7 (BTAHL7) 1.0 Windows Performance Counters and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) events with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 (MOM).

BizTalk Server 2004 Convoy Deep Dive. This paper discusses examples of business scenarios that require convoy message processing, explains convoy theory and messaging, and reviews each included sample.

BizTalk Server 2004 Deployment Guide for Security. This document provides guidelines to help you assess the potential threats to your BizTalk Server implementation, a sample architecture for small and medium-size companies, and a sample Point of Sale solution.

BizTalk Server 2004 Performance Characteristics. This document provides information about the performance characteristics of key BizTalk Server 2004 configurations and components, such as messaging, pipeline, and orchestration.

BizTalk Server 2004 Technical Guide for High Availability. This document contains information to help you understand, plan, and implement a highly available BizTalk Server 2004 environment.

Build Better Business Processes with Web Services in BizTalk Server 2004. This article focuses on one Web services specification that is critical, yet has been largely overlooked: the Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS, or BPEL).

Connecting to the Elemica Network with BizTalk Accelerator for RosettaNet 3.0. This document describes how to enable Microsoft BizTalk Accelerator for RosettaNet (BTARN) 3.0 to connect to the Elemica Exchange Server Provider (ESP).

Developing Integration Solutions with BizTalk Server 2004. This document provides developers with techniques for designing, developing, and deploying solutions within BizTalk Server 2004.

Risk Scoring with BizTalk Server 2004 and the Business Rules Framework. This document presents an example BizTalk solution in which an insurance company uses the Business Rules Framework to create a risk profile for qualifying applicants.

Understanding BizTalk Server 2004. BizTalk Server 2004, an integration server, lets you to develop, deploy, and manage integrated business processes and XML-based Web services. This version of BizTalk Server provides integration between messaging and orchestration, and enhanced security and support for industry standards.

Using XML Schemas in BizTalk Server 2004. This document covers the basic concepts needed to create XML schemas and explains how they are used in Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004.

/Sarbjit Gill

Try the Office Dev Labs and Learn!

Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 provides a rich set of tools and technologies that enables developers to efficiently implement robust business solutions.

In these MSDN hosted virtual labs, you will use Word, Excel and InfoPath 2003 with industry standard XML, .NET Framework technologies and the Visual Studio Tools for Office.

Cheers
Sarbjit Gill

Using SharePoint Portal Server to Index Your Custom Application

Greetings,

Although you can plumb the depths of SharePoint's search engine, creating custom protocol handlers and IFILTERs to handle your site's custom search needs, for most sites, you can follow a much simpler process to provide customized searches.

Read more: http://www.devx.com/dotnet/Article/27998

/Sarbjit Gill

64-Bit .NET Framework

Greetings

MSDN:The 64-bit version of the .NET Framework 2.0 enables the .NET Framework platform, tools and applications to run on 64-bit workstations and servers which provide increased performance and scalability by addressing more memory (16 TB vs. 4G), processing more data (64 vs. 32 bits) per clock cycle and performing faster numeric calculations

Overview
Leverage Existing .NET Framework Code
Leverage Existing .NET Framework Development Experience
Leverage Existing Windows Investments
Getting Started
Development Articles
Development Tools
Code Samples
Visual Studio 2005 Remote Debugging

/Sarbjit Gill

SQL Server 2005 White Papers

Greetings folks,

Weather you are an IT professional or a developer, Thank You for attending the workshop(s) for SQL Server 2005 Overview for DBAs and Developers at Avantus Training, Singapore.

For further expoloring the coolest functionalities of SQL 2005, you have access to the SQL Server 2005 White Papers . Get up to speed with the latest technical information on SQL Server 2005 by reading these white papers on TechNet and MSDN.

Cheers
Gill